Ottawa Valley HOTRAK - Part Two
Recently the modular HO club HOTRAK here in Ottawa set up a mega-layout at our National Museum of Science & Technology.
I have already shared some pictures and videos from my visit there this past Saturday in my previous blog entry.
This blog posting takes you on another journey around this interesting and immense layout.
In that previous post I shared images of a vast amount of trains including Steve's GO Transit train which proved to be very popular with the museum visitors due to its "high recognition" factor.
All three rail lines are occupied at the moment.
We note James's local residing on the near track with its blue Conrail van and Dilip's train sitting on the far track with his CP power awaiting clearance back onto the main.
In the distance we spot yet a fourth train at Pine Point waiting to get into the town of Coboconk located in the Kawartha region of Ontario not too far from Lindsay.
The youngster on the left was a very good operator as well.
Mark let me know that his name is Wyatt and he is HOTRAK's newest member.
Apparently he loves running the trains so much that he is willing to ride the bus for two hours to get to the HOTRAK setup!
Kudos to you Wyatt!
As a retired school teacher, I am pleased to see young people getting into this fine hobby of ours!
I once again catch up with the GO commuter train passing through Fallowfield, Star Base and Glen Tay.
Video passage of the commuter train.
Remember, to engage the video click on the white arrow in the center slowly two times.
Being a Boston & Maine modeler I am thrilled to spot the blue B&M hopper on the trestle dealing with ballast and gravel!
The trestle is located on the Orleans module with the wye at Wyecliffe off in the distance beyond the rock cut.
Mark let me know that Normand built the Orleans module quite some time ago.
Great job Normand!
Tim and his partner constructed the set of buildings you see across the wye at Hawthorne.
Most impressive Tim!
Indeed, lots of impressive scenes abound all across the layout.
These container stacks are located at Castor River.
This coaling tower casts a shadow at certain times in the day over the crossovers found here adjacent to the Castor River Industrial Complex.
Further down the line we come upon Bell's Corner.
Here is where the track curves to the right.
More Pennsy video efforts.
You really feel like you are out in nature when you visit Wolf Creek and Spanish River.
A dramatic trestle dominates this gorgeous scene still under development.
If you want heavy industry, well you've got it here at Debeaujeu!
Opened for operation in 1976, the Arnprior Generating Station has made use of water from the Madawaska River to produce clean and renewable electrical power to the residents in this greater region and to regions throughout Ontario.
The energy produced goes into the general power grid for the province.
My research also tells me that the dam was built in part to help control water levels and correct erosion issues caused by other hydroelectric plants upstream of the dam.
The Provincial Paper industry dominates the landscape here in Cornwall.
For decades, Cornwall was known as "The Factory Town".
The textile industry with the cotton mills and the pulp and paper industry were far ahead of other factories in terms of longevity and the vast numbers of workers employed on their premises.
It's wonderful that some of that history is preserved within the confines of this fine looking HOTRAK module!
Meanwhile over at the far end of the layout Jim has just run past Star Base with his power about to enter Glen Tay.
Video of the passage through Star Base Command!
Aha! I spot a train of European nature!
Here we see David explaining to Norman the origin of his train.
In the audio for the video David explains that the locomotive is of Austrian descent and the trailing cars are of Swiss nationality.
Dilip has finished with his switching up the Timber Grove Branch at the locations of Orleans, Ellwood and Connaught and will soon be back on the main line here at Wyecliffe.
Dilip's train takes the right leg of the wye to depart the branch in this video effort.
He is on a heading for Jackfish Bay.
Trestle video work!
You've gotta love this view of the aircraft under wraps in this busy scene!
We catch up with the quick moving ON train.
Indeed, it is a blur, but a pretty one!
Okay Mike...enough of those blurry action images.
We find this train in care of a CN GMD1 locomotive rounding the bend nearby the farmer's field where the cattle are a-grazing.
I believe the unit on the HOTRAK setup is brother #1075...kindred spirits for sure!
When George isn't running trains on the HOTRAK setup, he is in the cab of CN units in "real time" working the district between Kingston and Toronto.
He and his family live in Belleville, just a short distance from where Barry Birkett has his large scale outdoor garden railroad.
It was great meeting you once again, George!
Dilip meets the Ontario Northland train along the expansive curve located at City Bakery.
For me it was a thrill seeing that the film Casablanca was playing at the local theatre.
My daughter, Karen, just spent ten days in Morocco over the Christmas break flying into Casablanca and ending her trip in Marrakesh.
She then took the train from Marrakesh back to Casablanca to catch her Air Canada flight back home at the end of the ten day excursion around Morocco.
Back on the home front, here is the tower guarding the yard at Lowell Junction on my B&M/MEC layout.
I just completed building this craftsman kit this past week.
The kit is from many, many decades back.
Its construction involved working in plaster, white metal castings and wood.
It is similar to the tower I constructed in the early stages of my layout's development.
This particular structure guards the interlocking between the Maine Central and the Boston & Maine.
This was also a craftsman plaster kit offering.
Back at Lowell Junction near the duckunder location on the layout, this standard Atlas plastic tower had resided here for the first few years of my railroad's existence.
I repainted the tower and added mortar to the brickwork while highlighting individual bricks in various colours.
I was proud of this little structure for the longest time!
After a number of years I found this B&M prototypical tower offering from American Model Builders that fit the bill perfectly!
I donated the old Atlas tower to a young lad starting out in model railroading and he was pleased as punch!
The American Model Builders structure you see pictured above then held firm at Lowell Jct. for many more years.....until this past week.
Alas...the tower managed to find a new home in the town of North Dover along with a new role.
Leaving Lowell Jct. behind, the tower now oversees the operations at the southern (inbound) end of the yard in North Dover!
Seeing as the real estate did not allow sufficient ground work, the structure juts out over the ravine where I had to scratchbuild the decking and pier supports.
Sitting adjacent to the Marshall Creamery, the operators manning the tower will be busy seeing over 50 trains a day ply the rails into North Dover as was the case back in the 1950's!
The Marshall Creamery is named for my good friend and frequent railroad magazine contributor, Trevor Marshall.
Trevor was instrumental in designing the "Surround Staging" concept of my model railroad.
Another recent addition to the layout was this "yard office" located on the inner curve of the North Dover yard.
An outbound B&M train has just departed Lowell bound for Portland, Maine.
The crew had left Boston a few hours earlier in the morning.
Video action of the train's departure out from Lowell.
More video of the same train as it departs Lowell Jct. on the Boston & Maine RR.
The headend has just found daylight after traveling through the tunnel under the main street of town.
It's May 27th, 1958, Mike's date of birth.
The crew is about to pass beneath the telltale which alerts any crew members who may be walking atop a boxcar that a tunnel entrance is imminent.
In another case on the railroad, a telltale alerts the crew of a highway overpass coming up.
This aerial view showcases the "three T's"...the Tower, the Telltale and the Tunnel.
My inspiration for the tunnel beneath the main street of town came from a visit to Bellow's Falls, Vermont where the Boston & Maine tracks penetrate beneath the streets of that town.
The approaching train is captured on video tape in North Dover on my layout.
This Warren Dodgson photo from nearly 40 years ago shows the tunnel beneath the main street of Bellows Falls.
You can make out the buildings along the main street to the upper left.
I purchased a couple of Boston & Maine books at a used book store in the block of buildings shown up top while stopping off en route home from the Springfield train show with friends.
Railfan Jim Guest snapped this shot at the same location in more modern times.
The dramatic effect of an at-grade crossing occurring just outside a tunnel opening causes one to hope the signals protecting the crossing work at all times!
Indeed, the train's horn would be blaring to warn any oncoming motorists or pedestrians of the train's imminent arrival.
This image courtesy of Railroad Forums shows the rockwork leading up to the tunnel entrance.
Well, that's it for this particular blog entry...I've gotta rush out and wrestle some renegade cattle.
I think I had as much fun as this family spending a multitude of hours at this incredible setup.
Indeed, I really enjoyed the challenge of re-creating this scene on my model railroad!
I wonder if the HOTRAK members realize that they've got some "milk makers" now on the lam?
I must've moved while snapping this image, but I am including it nonetheless as it shows Greg encouraging some of our young visitors to help with the horns and bells.
Who knows, he may have just encouraged another family to get involved in this wonderful hobby of ours!
Thanks again for the invite, Dilip!
And...thanks to all of the lads and lasses at HOTRAK for their contributions to this wonderful hobby of ours.
In a few day's time I'll create another blog entry with still more pics and videos from my day trackside.
Thanks to HOTRAK and our Canadian National Museum of Science & Technology for allowing this setup to take place!
